Passion for the environment sown in the field
My journey in the field of environmental studies began to truly take shape 25 years ago, in 2000. Deeply interested in environmental issues, I was majoring in regional ecosystem studies, an exploration of how society can conserve, manage, and sustainably use ecosystems and natural resources. I heard of the CSO Learning Program when the Sompo Environment Foundation held an information session at my university, and that encounter set me on my path. I joined the first batch of the program.
My host CSO (Civil Society Organization) was Friends of the Earth (FoE) Japan, a registered nonprofit organization (NPO) engaged in conserving the Siberian taiga region, which stretches across eastern Russia as one of the world’s largest coniferous forests. My assignment resonated with my memories of previously traveling solo in Sakhalin. As a first-cohort CSO Learning Program participant, I was able to engage in frontline NPO activities.
At the time, I thought of environmental issues as something discussed within global frameworks and removed from society and everyday life. On-site, however, I encountered NPO staff dedicated to conservation, writers covering study tours, video creators documenting the work, and many others, each grappling with environmental challenges from professional standpoints. I realized that in tackling environmental issues, there are countless jobs, just as there are countless ways to apply knowledge to society.
Twenty-five years have passed. I have built on the mindset of those early days, using the lessons learned to benefit society but also to pursue a diverse career. Today, I support companies as an environmental and ESG consultant at Sompo Risk Management.
Under the Sompo Environment Foundation’s philosophy of “fostering people who plant trees,” what was a small internship program involving 21 students, including myself, has spread nationwide. The program today boasts over 1,300 alumni.
How society has shaped the program
When I entered the program in the early 2000s, global warming was just gaining public recognition. The CSO Learning Program emerged as a new human resource development program that treats environmental issues as personal and that emphasizes learning through frontline activities. By grappling with questions that have no single answer, students take their first steps to becoming environmental support professionals.
In 2005, the Aichi World Expo popularized the concept of a sustainable society in Japan, leading the Sompo Environment Foundation to diversify the themes of its initiatives. Environmental issues came to encompass not only nature conservation but also how people and society fit in.
The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake significantly challenged Japanese society’s values. The CSO Learning Program thereafter focused on life-sustaining environments and expanded its activities to include community revitalization and disaster-prevention education. Viewing social issues as an extension of one’s personal life became a defining perspective of the program’s new direction.
In the 2020s and particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, society entered an era of online and digital interaction. Young people’s interests shifted beyond global warming and climate change to broader themes, such as biodiversity and nature-positive societies.
In response, the CSO Learning Program continues to take on challenges, including online learning beyond regional boundaries and expansion overseas to Indonesia.
The Sompo Environment Foundation’s philosophy, however, of “fostering people who plant trees,” remains the same even as, for 25 years, the CSO Learning Program has evolved and deepened its significance.
Coming together to learn further
Since its launch in 2000, the CSO Learning Program has sent many aspiring environmental leaders into society. However, unlike today when social media is ubiquitous, the time until around 2010 saw alumni finding difficulty to stay in touch. Alumni ties thus faded over time.
The Sompo Environment Foundation saw the program’s 25th anniversary as an opportunity to establish a proper alumni community. This brings together graduates for multilayered forms of engagement, from simply casually communicating to providing opportunities to launch projects, offering career advice to current interns, or collaborating with the Sompo Group on social issues.
“Turning learning into a continuation, not a conclusion” is the central idea. It implies deepened connections and collaboration. The 25th anniversary’s community initiative, therefore, is a major step to the program’s next phase.
Alumni expressed expectations for the community at the anniversary event.
“Connections among cohorts exist, but intergenerational ties were thin. It was unfortunate that there was minimal contact with batches that came before and after and we hope that the alumni community changes this. There are few places where you can meet people who, even as working adults, carry a strong passion for improving society and the environment. That, to me, is the true value of this program.”
Koichiro Matsuda
Environmental Promotion Department
Sekisui House
Connecting people for an improved future
The value of the CSO Learning Program lies not simply in environmental education but in providing a framework that nurtures people of initiative. Society faces ever-more complex challenges—climate change, disaster resilience, social welfare, community partnerships, and more—whose solutions are increasingly harder to find. That is precisely why society needs people who transcend disciplinary and professional boundaries, act with an altruistic mindset, and respond flexibly to change.
The Sompo Environment Foundation has always believed that its greatest contribution to solving social issues is cultivating and encouraging individuals to take action and to spread that mindset throughout society. Add to that connections that span generations and positions among alumni, and you gain a powerful force sparking innovation and shaping the future of our environment and communities.
The tree I planted as a first cohort is now joined by many. Together, they are a dense forest, each new tree representing a young person who builds on what earlier planters built to establish tomorrow’s society.
The mural in the header photo was created by OVERALLs.
